Pour Some Tea for Two
by caosga
Summary: It's four in the morning and all Piper wants is some chamomile tea, but it's still four in the morning and Leo Valdez hasn't slept in five days. (Short, post-war, implied Caleo)


**A/N: Have a simple oneshot to announce my return to FF! Wow, confetti, such things. **

Piper had a cold, of all things. A stupid cold, one she probably got while saving the world or bashing in the heads of various capricious monsters.

Such was the life of a demigod. Defeat Gaea? Cool. Head cold? Oh, no, not without chamomile tea.

And that lead her to the kitchen and four o'clock in the morning, clutching a blanket around her shoulders and fisting a handful of tissues in the pocket of Jason's sweatpants. (Jason's sweatpants, by the way, were three sizes past to big, so with a pinky she was holding them up and every five or so steps she stumbled.)

She did _not _expect to find Leo silently pilfering the cabinets, his eyebrows drawn into a dark line on his forehead.

"Leo?" She asks, with a thick, raspy voice.

Leo jumps sky high, which is actually pretty high, considering they're basically a million feet up. Had to be a million feet up, right? Totally.

"Piper!" Leo winces. "Ooh, you look rough. Like you got run over by a truck or something."

Piper glares at him. "I feel like it. See any chamomile tea in there, Valdez?"

"Is chamomile supposed to help?" Leo asks, squinting into the cabinet.

"I dunno. I just know there's some kind of tea that works freakin' miracles, we've got one kind of tea, and I need a freakin' miracle."

Leo chuckles, pulling out a generic box and tossing it to her. She's caught unprepared and it bounces off her belly.

Leo laughs. "Smooth moves, Mrs. McFly."

Piper wrinkles her nose at the joke. "That was weak."

"So was that comeback."

Piper prepares to lean down and grab the fallen box, but Leo sweeps in like the Flash and sets the box on the table. Piper blinks in surprise.

Leo tsks. "I wasn't raised by wolves, McLean. Head colds suck."

He pulls out a black pot and sets it on the burner, haphazardly dumping water into the pot. She snorts.

"You're bothered with my skills? It looks like Percy had a party in here."

Leo laughs. "Call it my offering to Poseidon."

"You're offering Poseidon part of his domain?"

"... Yeah. Totally. It'll work, trust me. Smooth sailing from here on out," Leo says, making an exaggerated hand motion she can't even recognize. "I can feel it now."

Piper chuckles. She almost immediately regrets doing so, because her headache flares painfully. Leo slides a bottle of Excedrin across the table.

Piper gasps. "Oh, thank the gods. You psychic, Repair Boy?"

"Obviously," Leo snorts.

Piper unscrews the cap and takes the correct amount. She sighs in relief. "I love that toolbelt."

Leo doesn't reply, but instead starts humming a lullaby. The smooth tune threatens to put Piper, who's already exhausted to sleep.

She only wakes up when Leo calls for her. "_Mi senorita," _he says, voice sweet and soft. "We have tomato soup, if you want some."

Piper's stomach growls at the mention of it. "That sounds great, actually."

Leo slides a mug of warm tea over the table, before swapping pots and pulling out the Campbell's.

It takes Piper a minute to realize he's actually singing - just very, very softly, and in Spanish.

It's about to make her clock out again, and she glares at his back, watching his skinny shoulders slip and slide as his hands tap out a beat on the counter.

"Sorry to keep you up," Piper says, suddenly guilty. It's almost four thirty. He must be exhausted.

"No trouble," Leo says. "I was up anyway."

"Why?"

Leo shrugs. "Astrolabe."

"Why're you so obsessed with that, anyway?" Piper asks.

Leo shrugs again. "I like a challenge."

Piper's head drops to the table. "I hate everything."

Leo laughs. "Peppers help."

"How?"

"Clears out the sinuses," Leo replies, simply, pouring some tomato soup in a bowl and presenting it to her.

In that moment, Leo Valdez is the most exhausted person she's ever laid eyes on, for the fourth time running.

Piper smiles bashfully, inhaling the sweet aroma of the soup. "You should get to bed, y'know. You look like you haven't slept for days."

"Probably haven't," Leo mutters, and Piper slaps his arm.

"Leo!"

Leo shrugs, for the umpteenth time. She's getting tired of his carelessness. "Whoops."

"Leo, you need, like, sleeping pills. Or a cat. Cats make people sleepy."

Leo raises an eyebrow. "Piper, you're worse off than I am right about now."

"Only because I'm sick," she corrects. "Leo, this isn't healthy."

"I know that. That's never stopped me."

Piper sighs. "You're an insomniac."

"Oh, wow, Captain Obvious."

"How long this time? I know three days was the longest while you were building the Argo II," Piper says.

Leo checks his watch. "Going on five."

Piper doesn't have the energy to gasp. She takes a long moment to sip her soup.

"Leo," she says, warningly, once she's gathered the strength to speak.

"Piper," Leo mocks, face breaking into a smile, but all she can see is shadows under his eyes.

"I'm serious. The astrolabe isn't that important."

"It's not the astrolabe that's important, Piper," Leo sighs, looking for all the saddest she's ever seen him, and Piper almost visibly recoils.

He's Leo Valdez. Beside 'chipper' in the dictionary is his picture, with a big, crazy grin and the wild black curls.

He's not supposed to be sad, but here he is, looking like depression is his old friend.

"What is?"

"What I can do with it, once I get it to work."

Piper rolls her eyes. "It's not more important than you, Leo."

For a moment, Leo looks as if he might disagree. Piper's prepared a retort when Leo shrugs, and she feels a bolt of irritation at the gesture.

"Night, Piper," Leo says, and he takes his leave.

She never asks about it again.

**A/N: There you go, something real simple for you guys to enjoy or whatever. All my current stories are discontinued, but I'd really LOVE it if you'd put in the reviews which of these chaptered stories you'd rather see -**

_**The Trifecta**__** - (slight Maze Runner crossover) In order to defeat a common enemy, Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians will have to unite at long last. Meanwhile, in the perfect replica of Daedalus's Labyrinth, Reyna Avila Ramirez-Arellano, Carter Kane, and Leo Valdez all become certified amnesiacs.**_

_**Valkyrja**__** - Annabeth, Piper, and Jason are transported two hundred years in the world's future, where Hera is the Queen of All, indestructible automatons have wiped out the human race, the world is populated by biological freaks of nature, and the only hope for this blue world of ours are six war machines created six centuries ago. The greatest question is - can Annabeth, Jason, and Piper stop this from ever happening?**_

**Don't worry, both fics will eventually include all the characters. Alright, thanks for reading, please leave a suggestion!**


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